In the BENEFIT trial presented at the ESC Congress 2015, 2,854 patients with Chagas' cardiomyopathy from five South American countries were randomly assigned to receive trypanocidal therapy with benznidazole or placebo for up to 80 days. After follow-up (mean 5.4 years), detection of the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite in the blood using polymerase chain reaction assay was significantly reduced with benznidazole therapy compared with control (P <0.001). However, the rate of the composite primary end point of cardiovascular outcomes was not significantly different in the benznidazole group (27.5%) compared with the placebo group (29.1%; P = 0.31), indicating no benefit of this treatment on cardiac clinical deterioration.
References
Morillo, C. A. et al. Randomized trial of benznidazole for chronic Chagas' cardiomyopathy. N. Engl. J. Med. 10.1056/NEJMoa1507574
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Benznidazole does not slow cardiac deterioration in Chagas' cardiomyopathy. Nat Rev Cardiol 12, 623 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2015.150
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2015.150